Star Trek

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Back in a parallel time stream, before I was engrossed in recent events, I saw Star Trek!

I thought it was pretty good. In fact, it’s terrific. I’m not a proper Star Trek fan - this is the first movie I’ve seen -but I did enjoy watching reruns of the original series on tv as a child.

This film recreates the original characters extraordinarily well - both Chris Pine as James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock are sensational in their re-embodiments of Shatner’s and Nimoy’s iconic performances while at the same time moving the characters into new territory. And that’s pretty much what the entire movie does, and does so excellently.

But, that is also a problem. The original Star Trek wasn’t a wham bang rollicking adventure blockbuster with state-of-the-art special effects and highly expensive cinematography. And while the philosophizing social conscience is still in evidence - vestigially - this is mostly about the thrills. A part of me mourns that.